Electronic Appendix

Understanding Water Conflicts and Cooperation – Action Research in the Nile Basin

 Simon J A Mason, NCCR North-South, Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich (mason@sipo.gess.ethz.ch)

The aim of the project “Environment and Cooperation in the Nile Basin” (ECONILE, 1999-2006) was to foster better understanding of the environmental, socio-cultural, political and economic aspects of water sharing in the Eastern Nile Basin. This river is shared by different countries, namely Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. Cooperation between the countries has improved since 1999. However, there are still serious national obstacles to cooperative development and water demand management.

Since 1999 the countries of the Nile Basin got together in the “Nile Basin Initiative” (NBI) – funded by the World Bank, UNDP and various other aid agencies – to set-up development projects and a legal and institutional framework to make use of the shared benefits of the Nile. For a long time the Nile question had been addressed unilaterally by the countries of the Nile, or had even led to international tensions. ECONILE provided the opportunity for research to follow the developments of the NBI, and to also support it where possible. 

Environment and Cooperation in the Nile Basin (ECONILE)
ECONILE was first set-up as a tandem PhD program, focusing on the downstream (Egyptian, Sudanese) perspective, and the upstream perspective of water use (Ethiopian) .  This follows a conflict transformation approach, where the first step is to understand the various perspectives of the key stakeholders before seeing how they differ, where they overlap, and where common ground can be built. The research project had researchers from different cultural backgrounds (Swiss, Ethiopian), using different disciplines (environmental science and political science) but focusing on the same problem: how to enhance sustainable cooperation in the Nile Basin. Later, ECONILE was also complemented by further research on domestic water policies and their relation to international water policies. Research was supplemented by concrete “action”: three dialogue workshops were organized, where stakeholders from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia met to jointly analyse the issues at hand, and develop joint activities, such as the “Nile Capacity Building Forum”. 

ECONILE-Group (from left to right): K. Spillman, G. Baechler, S. Mason, Y. Arsano, A. Wenger, M. Gouda, A. Zehnder

Results: Deconstructing to Reconstruct
At a first glance, conflicts often seem simple: Egypt as the most downstream country with the most developed irrigation system wants to maintain its historic rights of water use, Ethiopia as the upstream country with little development in the irrigation sector wants to increase its share of river water that originates from its territory. At a second glance, however, things are more complicated. This complication bears in it a great opportunity, however. For by deconstructing the simplicities of conflict positions, one arrives at a multitude of facts, perceptions and options. Research can support cooperation and conflict transformation by deconstructing simplicities, thereby identifying the key pieces of the puzzle, in order to allow politicians to reconstruct their negotiation positions in a new, more constructive manner. Some findings:

• Options exist that satisfy the various interests: Beyond political rhetoric and confrontational negotiation positions, the Nile countries have interests of water development and security that are mutually compatible. These interests can be met by jointly agreed development projects e.g. that increase irrigation efficiency, support watershed management, generate hydroelectric-power, and above all that develop the human and institutional capacity for these tasks.
  
• Continuing, but slow international cooperation: The NBI has been successful in enhancing cooperation in the Nile basin. Even if this process is slow, the Nile countries are working together more constructively today than they did before 1999. Development is likely to be faster on the level of infrastructure projects than on the legal, institutional side. A key step forward would be to develop incentives for water demand management (i.e. increase in efficiency) on the international level, rather than the momentary situation that tends to favour water supply projects (i.e. infrastructure that consumes water to provide arguments for historic rights and increased needs in negotiations).
  
• National obstacles to development and cooperation: Water development is hindered as much, if not more, on the national level as it is on the international level. The central governments of Sudan and Ethiopia have not placed priority on water development, mainly due to internal conflicts and weak government institutions. Some minimal degree of political stability seems a first step before serious long-term water development projects are launched. Egypt could increase its potential for water demand management through better inter-sectoral policy integration.

Nile near Cairo

Impact of Research: Soft Indicators of Success
It is difficult to measure the impact of transdisciplinary research as undertaken by ECONILE. Three “soft” indicators, however, can be identified: First, there were participants in the dialogue workshops that were also involved in the NBI and domestic water policy processes. They acknowledged the added value of reflecting in a non biased manner about issues that were being dealt with in politics. Through them, a link between ECONILE and the political processes was possible, not just through written work, but also in the form of people. Second, there were outsiders in the political processes in the Nile Basin that supported the dialogue workshops and capacity building workshops. Third, there were outsiders in the academic field that supported this kind of action research – pointing out that it would not lead to breakthroughs in basic research in natural sciences, but that it was unique in combining disciplines, developing new methodologies and applying these to a multi-facetted real-life problem.

Key Messages

• Minimizing biases by getting academics from different disciplines and regions to work together: “Outsiders”, academics from outside a conflict region, and “insiders”, academics from a conflict region, both have their biases, yet they lie in different areas. By working together, the weaknesses of these biased can be minimized.
  
• Enhancing impact by crossing borders between academics, politicians, NGOs: Action research has the potential to get people from politics and research to learn from each other.
  
• Using the beauty of complexity: Simple answers in a conflict tend to be antagonistic or useless. Research can deconstruct simplifications, analyse various aspects of the process, to thereby support politicians in reconstructing positions in a new and potentially more constructive manner.

Institutions and actors involved

1. Center for Security Studies (CSS), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich: The research and teaching activities of the CSS cover a broad range of topics related to international and Swiss security policy. www.css.ethz.ch
   
2. Swisspeace, Bern: swisspeace is a practice-oriented peace research institute in the area of conflict analysis and peacebuilding. www.swisspeace.ch
   
3. NCCR North South Research Partnerships for Mitigating Syndromes of Global Change: The NCCR North-South focuses on international research cooperation and promotes high-quality disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research with the aim of contributing to an improved understanding of the status of different syndromes of global change, and of the responses of different social groups and society as a whole. http://www.nccr-north-south.unibe.ch
   
4. Yacob Arsano, College of Social Science, Addis Ababa University. The College aims to promote teaching and research in the social sciences and humanities. http://www.aau.edu.et/faculties/css/css_index.htm
   
5. Atta El Battahani, Faculty of Economic and Social Studies, Khartoum University: The Faculty takes special interest in field research, particularly in the areas related to economic and social development in the country. http://www.uofk.edu/index.php?id=195
   
6. Magdy Hefny, Regional Center for Studies and Research of Water Uses Ethics, Cairo. The Center is focusing mainly on the development and support of research, studies, training and dissemination of appropriate education materials on the ethics of water within the Arab region. http://www.mwri.gov.eg/egyptrenew/

1. Simon Mason, Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich, did his PhD in environmental sciences. Mason Simon, 2004 “From Conflict to Cooperation in the Nile Basin”, Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich, online at www.css.ethz.ch
2. Yacob Arsano was based in Addis Ababa, and he did his PhD at the University of Zurich in political sciences. Arsano, Yacob, 2007: "Ethiopia and the Nile, Dilemmas of National and Regional Hydropolitics" Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich, online at: www.css.ethz.ch
3. - Luzi, Samuel. 2007, Double-edged hydropolitics on the Nile - Linkages between domestic water policy making and transboundary conflict and cooperation, Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich.
4. - Moges Shiferaw, 2007 “National and Local Water Property Right Regimes for. Water Management in Ethiopia: The Case of Nile-Baro-Akobo River System”, Dissertation University of Basel
5. - Mey Eltayeb Ahmed, 2008, The National and Indigenous Management of Environmental Conflicts in the Savannah Belt, Sudan, Case studies of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains, Dissertation Khartoum University.
6. Mason S. 2007. Dialogue Workshop Methodology: Adapting the Interactive Problem-Solving Method to an Environmental Conflict: Evaluation of an Eastern Nile Basin Dialogue Workshop. NCCR North-South Dialogue, 3. Bern, Switzerland: NCCR North-South.http://www.north-south.unibe.ch/content.php/publication/id/2075
7. - Amer, Salah El-Din; Arsano, Yacob; El-Battahani, Atta; Hamad, Osman el Tom; Hefny, Magdy; Tamrat, Imeru, 2005: "Sustainable Development and International Cooperation in The Eastern Nile Basin", in: Aquatic Sciences, 67,1: 3-14.
8. For example, ECONILE were awarded the “Junior Peter Becker Prize for Peace and Conflict Studies” in 2005